


Nothing's Impossible

by flowersforgraves



Series: BTHB [32]
Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Crimes & Criminals, Gen, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 20:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19410466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersforgraves/pseuds/flowersforgraves
Summary: Moist has a three-step process for fleeing town.





	Nothing's Impossible

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sugarqbes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarqbes/gifts).



> Prompt from sugarqbes: on the run + Moist
> 
> Card: [here on Imgur](https://imgur.com/VtOGzNh) // List of claimed prompts: [here on Tumblr](https://flowersforgraves.tumblr.com/post/184817489731/)
> 
> Prompt me via Dreamwidth or Tumblr!

You would think being chased out of town would get easier, but the truth is, for Moist at least, that it doesn’t. He’s gotten used to it, sure, but it’s not _easy_.

He has a routine. He has a routine, how he packs up. It's habit, he’s got it down to a science. It takes twenty minutes, start to finish. He allows five minutes to panic and rush back to wherever he’s staying. He allows ten minutes to collect anything he wants to take with -- valuables deftly liberated from his hosts, items of a personal nature, the finest horse in the town. And he allows five minutes to get on the horse and leave before they can run him out on a rail.

He’s in the middle of stage two (it’s important to bring underwear. He’d learnt this one the hard way.) when Adora Belle Dearheart slams the door of his room open. She’s holding a riding crop in one hand and a letter in the other, with murder in her eyes.

Moist thinks she’s never been more attractive. But then, every time she shows up he has the same thought. “Hello,” he says, with considerable apprehension.

“No,” she says curtly. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He looks from her standing in the doorway to the pile of clothes at his feet to the valise in his hand. “Leaving…?” He’s flustered, wondering what she could possibly have come here to get from him. 

“You’re staying,” she tells him. “You owe the Patrician a debt. You have Groat and Stanley’s loyalty. You have _responsibility_ , little though you might deserve it.” Her lip curls just a little. “You are going to stay here and face the consequences of your actions.”

“How did you know I was going to leave?” Moist can’t stop himself from asking. The curiosity is almost overwhelming; he’s never been intercepted before, and certainly not by someone asking him to stay.

Adora pins him with a cold stare that makes him shut his mouth with an audible click of teeth. She’s about his height without the six-inch stiletto heels, so she towers over him right now while she’s wearing them. Moist suddenly feels very exposed, like she can see all his past misdeeds without him saying a word. 

“Okay,” he says, pretending she isn’t the most terrifying person he’s ever known. “But, Adora --”

She raises an eyebrow, arms folded as she waits for his excuses.

“I don’t know how to run a post office, let alone a bank!” Moist throws his hands up. “I still don’t know what I’m doing! I don’t understand why I’m here and why I haven’t left months ago!”

“Yes, you do know how to run a post office. You’ll figure the bank out. You’re smart, Lipwig." Adora lights a cigarette, places it in the holder. “And you know perfectly well why you’re here. The Patrician saved the life of one Albert Spangler so that one Moist von Lipwig can be made useful. And the reason you haven’t run away yet is because you’re a coward.” 

She’s not wrong about any of it, which is what stings. “I don’t --” Moist pauses, then gives up. “I suppose. But the _bank_ \--!”


End file.
